September 26, 2016
The Article 9 Association (A9A) on September 25 held a national exchange meeting at a Meiji University campus in Tokyo and announced that it launched an organizers’ group to facilitate an all-out nationwide movement anew.
Local A9A activists shared their experiences on grassroots movements in each community to protect the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution in face of the Abe government’s attempt to send the Self-Defense Forces to UN peacekeeping operations in South Sudan. They shared their efforts to attract people’s attention by holding many interesting events such as parades. They also talked about their active roles in efforts to have the opposition parties unite.
During the sixth exchange meeting taking place for the first time in three years, A9A Secretary General Komori Yoichi, professor at the University of Tokyo, unveiled the names of the 12 members of the organizers’ group, generating a loud round of applause from the audience.
German literature translator Ikeda Kayoko, one of the 12 organizers, said, “I’m furious at the current politics led by Prime Minister Abe who undermines constitutionalism and deviates from the country’s pacifist Constitution. We are now facing a crucial turning point. Let us fight together against Abe politics in solidarity with Okinawans’ ongoing anti-base struggle!”
Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University Yamauchi Toshihiro expressed his determination as an A9A organizer by saying, “The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is seeking to turn the SDF into ‘national defense forces’ and grant it a function to engage in battles anywhere in the world. This is what the LDP has in mind by changing the existing Article 9. I will do everything in my power to block that attempt.”
Past related article:
> A9A denounces PM Abe for trying to destroy war-renouncing Constitution [February 9, 2016]
Local A9A activists shared their experiences on grassroots movements in each community to protect the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution in face of the Abe government’s attempt to send the Self-Defense Forces to UN peacekeeping operations in South Sudan. They shared their efforts to attract people’s attention by holding many interesting events such as parades. They also talked about their active roles in efforts to have the opposition parties unite.
During the sixth exchange meeting taking place for the first time in three years, A9A Secretary General Komori Yoichi, professor at the University of Tokyo, unveiled the names of the 12 members of the organizers’ group, generating a loud round of applause from the audience.
German literature translator Ikeda Kayoko, one of the 12 organizers, said, “I’m furious at the current politics led by Prime Minister Abe who undermines constitutionalism and deviates from the country’s pacifist Constitution. We are now facing a crucial turning point. Let us fight together against Abe politics in solidarity with Okinawans’ ongoing anti-base struggle!”
Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University Yamauchi Toshihiro expressed his determination as an A9A organizer by saying, “The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is seeking to turn the SDF into ‘national defense forces’ and grant it a function to engage in battles anywhere in the world. This is what the LDP has in mind by changing the existing Article 9. I will do everything in my power to block that attempt.”
Past related article:
> A9A denounces PM Abe for trying to destroy war-renouncing Constitution [February 9, 2016]
